Chapter 49 - Volume 3 (1/2)

It was the day of the trial, and a crowd of people flocked to the plaza to witness the event. It was the first murder case in Ceta District. Although the culprit was caught red-handed at the scene, there was much debate as to what conclusion Isaac would make, especially when considering the ident.i.ty of the criminal and the authority of the Marquis that stood behind him.

The Order of Heavy Combat Knights, which was the pride of the Marquis, a.s.sembled and surrounded the plaza, preventing anyone from entering too deep. Many thought that even Isaac had no choice but to yield to the might of the Marquis after seeing the knights restrict and control the area to their liking; it was almost as if it was their home territory. And as expected of the city of gambling, there was a secret wager on what judgement Isaac would hand out for Dogman.

Isaac scanned the populated plaza. It was an amalgamation of knights, tourists, and citizens who were all eagerly waiting for the trial to begin.

“Hm, let us begin. Rizzly.”

Isaac called out for Rizzly atop City Hall’s roof, and Rizzly responded by shouting down at the crowd below them.

“Silence! Sir Isaac, graduate of the College, Rank 1 knight and the Lord’s Representative of New Port City shall make his appearance!”

Confused, the crowd looked to the roof where Rizzly’s words originated from.

Rizzly stepped away from the edge of the roof and brought out a strange looking chair. Everyone wondered why the chair had extra legs behind the seat itself, and their question was quickly answered. Once Isaac sat on the chair, Rizzly lifted him up along with the chair and placed it at the edge of the roof. The extra legs fit perfectly with the small fence which lined the edge of the roof. The employees looked dumbfounded. The chair must have been made for the sole purpose of allowing Isaac to look down at the crowd without leaving the roof, most likely due to laziness and to have un.o.bstructed view at the crowd beyond the fence.

The crowd reacted the same way below. They screamed when Isaac suddenly appeared at the edge of the rooftop, but once the chair was fit on the fence, it almost seemed as if Isaac was floating in midair with the chair.

Isaac didn’t even seem bothered at the dangerous spectacle. In fact, he seemed at home as he looked down at the crowd with his legs crossed and his weight s.h.i.+fted on one of the armrests.

“I will now announce the verdicts.”

“…!”

Trials followed a series of complicated procedures, and the final verdict was typically made only after the procedures were over. However, Isaac suddenly announced that he would skip all of the procedures and jump straight to conclusion, astounding all of the defendants and the crowd.

But what they thought about this was beyond Isaac’s care, and he promptly ordered Kalden.

“Begin.”

“Huh? Y, yes…”

Kalden wondered if it was alright to continue, but he had no choice except to proceed as Isaac ordered. Kalden called the defendant of the first case to stand at the front of the city hall below Isaac’s feet.

“Eh… This is the first trial. Defendant Neidan is charged with theft. He was stealing from one of the grocery shops owned by Rivolden Merchant Guild while he was hired as an employee…”

“Wait. Are you a citizen of this city?”

Isaac cut off Kalden and spoke down at Neidan, who quickly fell on his knees with tears dripping from his face.

“I am sorry! I must have gone mad!”

“Yes. You really did go mad. Charge him with a fine ten times the value of the stolen goods. The city will reimburse the shop first, and the defendant will be subject to unpaid labour until his debt is repaid in full. Next.”

“Huh? That’s it?”

“What? Do you need more?”

“He must be punished for his crime.”

“And I gave you his punishment. Unpaid labour.”

“I’ve never heard of such light punishment.”

“Light you say? Do you want to work this month without getting paid?”

“Huh? Why me?!”

“See. Do you think unpaid labour is light punishment when you’re struggling to make enough money in the first place? Ah! Don’t you think about slacking off just because you’re not getting paid. If we catch you doing so, we’ll send you straight to the mines. Hm… No, this isn’t enough. Hire a supervisor who will watch over those carrying out the punishment. Now we have both unpaid labour and another job.”

Behind him, Cordnell was whimpering, but the noise went into one of Isaac’s ears and escaped through other as he continued.

“Next.”

Kalden muttered to himself and hesitated for some time before bringing out the next defendant to the plaza with a sigh.

“This is the second trial. Defendant Korven was working as a waiter in a restaurant, but was caught in an argument with a difficult customer. The argument escalated and Korven ended up in a fist fight with the customer. He was arrested and charged with a.s.sault.”

“What! You a.s.saulted a customer? Why I ought to rip you to pieces with my own hands!”

Isaac burst out in anger when Kalden finished describing the defendant. He then shouted out at the crowd in the plaza.

“I, the Empire’s official, a College graduate, a Rank 1 knight, and the Lord’s Representative, will give you the absolute standard when administering my land.”

Everyone listened keenly as they held their breath. Many people in the crowd were citizens of the city, but there were a number of outsiders mixed in the crowd. Knowing what the lord liked was crucial to determine what they found to be significant.

Once everyone’s attention was at him, Isaac continued with a firm voice.

“Money is truth, justice, and power.”

“…”

There was a brief silence. The people couldn’t understand what Isaac meant and began to murmur to each other in confusion.

Isaac continued his speech as he looked down at them.

“Those who live in New Port City are trash and maggots that don’t even deserve to live.”

“…”

Another wave of silence befell in the plaza, but this time it was a cold one. The abusive words stupefied even those who were standing behind Isaac, whose mouths were left agape in astonishment.

“Why? Because you don’t have money! When something unfair happens to you, when your belongings are taken from you, when you aren’t given the right pay, and when you submit without resistance against violence. It’s all happening because you don’t have money.”

Everyone tilted their head at Isaac’s explanation, which sounded both plausible and wrong at the same time.

Isaac’s emotionless voice continued.

“The reason why you can’t leave this dumpster of a city is because you have no money. You can’t even care for your sick family because you are poor. The reason why you sell your body to feed your family is because you are poor, the reason why you have a hierarchy which feeds on the weak is because you are poor, and the reason why you kill others to save yourself is because you are poor.”

“…”

“All of this could have been avoided if you had money.”

People were still split on what they thought about Isaac’s words. There was no one in New Port City who never worried about money. They scavenged through the trash to quell their starving bodies and stole from others. All in the name of survival. It was their way of life, and it had always been so.

“Life without money is miserable. That is why you, who have no money, are trash and animals who only know how to speak. Those in Port City knew this, and that is why they threw away their pride and elegance in a fiery riot to save their own wealth.”

Isaac’s calm and quiet voice sunk deeply into everyone’s ears, and their eyes turned more and more menacing toward Isaac. The employees and hubaes were aghast at Isaac’s monologue. Even the wisest of men spoke back when they were insulted directly. And wrath from those who suffered through poverty was even more dangerous. If their emotions exploded into a frenzy, it would turn into a riot so large that even the North Bears and the elves wouldn’t be able to stop it. The knights, on the other hand, would watch with a grin on their faces.

Even Rizzly and Lanburton began to tense up as the atmosphere worsened with every pa.s.sing moment. Rizzly quickly sent out his signal to a.s.semble his tribesmen.

“And I have given you an opportunity.”

“…?”

There was a pause. People wondered at what Isaac meant by an opportunity. Isaac watched the attention focus onto him once more and began to talk to the waiter who fought with a customer.

“Put your life on the line for the single coin your customer throws at you. Even if they are the greatest a.s.sholes who slept with their mothers, if they came to New Port City with money, they are guests. Lick their a.s.ses if you must to open their wallets. That is your job. Honour? Pride? Self-esteem? That is a luxury only those who have money can own. None of it matters if you are poor. If you find the world unfair and disgusting, make money! If there is any trouble or complaints with the guests, then you will be sent to work in the mines, no questions asked. Unfair you say? It was the guest’s fault? Doesn’t matter. They are not guilty if they have money, and if you have none, then saving the world wouldn’t keep you from receiving a guilty verdict.”

“…”

“Therefore you are guilty! You are to be sent to work in the mines for one month! Make sure the guest is properly reimbursed.”

The waiter was taken away in a state of confusion. Everyone fell into deep contemplation whether Isaac’s verdict was lawful or not.

“Is this really okay?”

Cordnell asked Kalden with a serious face, and Kalden could only answer by resting his throbbing head on his hands.

“I don’t know. I know that this is a verdict made by the Lord just as the laws say, but all of the verdicts follow the law too… A verdict like this has never happened in the past… There’s nothing I can say since I’m no expert in law.”

“Sounds to me like it will become a problem later on.”

Cordnell and Kalden sighed unanimously as they looked to each other.

“Next!”

“Yes! The next trial is, um…”

Isaac urged Kalden to proceed with his shout. Kalden stuttered as he tried to proceed when he suddenly realised the reason behind Isaac’s actions. They are not guilty if they have money. They are guilty if they don’t. Therefore, the verdict of the murder case which Marquis Duberon’s son was involved in was not guilty.

Isaac’s cunning move avoided conflict against Marquis Duberon while at the same time making it seem as if he wasn’t submitting to their power. Kalden was impressed by Isaac’s political manoeuvring, but at the same time, he was disappointed. It felt as if his expectation of Isaac, that he would be different, was destroyed. While Kalden was busy being conflicted by his thoughts, a drunk man was led into the plaza while being supported by Anton.

“Is that him?”

“… Yes.”

“Is he drunk?”

Cordnell spoke back with confusion at Isaac’s question.

“Um, you told me to provide him with everything he wanted so…”

Isaac listened to Cordnell’s excuses as he looked at Dogman, who was still out of his senses and demanding more booze while snickering away. Isaac looked at Anton, who had a difficult look on his face, and their eyes met. After the brief exchange of looks, Isaac looked to the sky as he complained to himself.

“I guess I did commit some serious atrocities in the past to deserve getting involved with r.e.t.a.r.ds like them regularly.”

“Sorry?”

Kalden asked Isaac to repeat his words, but Isaac ignored him and whispered an order to Rizzly before looking down at Dogman.

“Master Dogman?”

“How dare you! You dare look down on the successor to Marquis Duberon!”

Isaac thought to himself that Dogman at least had some personality in that stupidity of his as he continued to make a ruckus without realising what was happening. Isaac sighed and continued.

“Now, now. This is an official matter so we’ll deal with the formalities later. So I heard you killed someone?”

Anton quickly blocked Dogman’s mouth before he could say something unnecessary and talked in his stead.

“It was an unfortunate accident; he didn’t mean it. Marquis Duberon will take responsibility and pay for the damages incurred in the accident.”

“So you’re telling me that you’ll pay me money for killing someone?”

“It was an accident that happened in drunken stupor. The Master regrets his actions greatly, and he will have some time to look back on his actions.”

It seemed that events like this had happened many times before to them. Anton insisted that all of it was an accident, but it was clear as day that Anton didn’t have any sense of remorse or was even apologetic in his actions, while Dogman had the audacity to appear in trial drunk. It was very difficult to take what Anton was saying at face value.

“Well, I guess it’s too bad for the person who died. But the survivors have to live on. A hundred thousand Giga will be your fine.”

“I believe that is quite large for a fine?”

“It needs to be at least that much for people to think ‘Ah! I’ll lose money if I kill that f.u.c.ker,’ before they stab someone in the heat of the moment. Plus, my citizens would need this much of an incentive to motivate them to become the most exceptional a.s.swipes, in addition to feeding their families.”

Many of the outsiders shouted out at Isaac’s nonsensical argument, but the citizens of New Port City seemed rather convinced. A hundred thousand Giga was more than enough for their families to leave New Port City and have a fresh new start in their lives, one filled with happiness. It seemed both reasonable and doable to them. These were the slums where people killed for loose change, after all.

“Are you trying to toy with me?! A hundred thousand Giga you say!”

Dogman seemed agitated and tried to trample towards Isaac, but Anton stopped him forcefully. The worse of a scene they made here, the more it impacted the honour of Marquis Duberon and his family.

“We will pay for it immediately.”

“Immediately? I guess you are quite rich?”

“I have been ordered to resolve this incident as quickly as possible, no matter the cost.”

“Cordnell, get the money for me.”

“Huh? Yes…”

Cordnell walked down to the plaza hesitantly and came back up with a check in his hand.

“It is a blank check signed by Marquis Duberon.”

“I guess he really is the great n.o.ble of the south to have this much wealth.”

“Then is it alright if we leave?”

“Huh? But it’s not over yet.”

“You’ve already received payment for our crimes.”

“That’s the verdict for the murder. We still have one more thing to discuss.”

“…”

“Smarta.s.s. Bring me the account book.”

Soland quickly handed out a piece of paper to Isaac as soon as he was ordered.

“Dear me, you’ve been eating a lot. Let’s just make it 10 thousand Giga for staying here each night. If we sum up the costs for all the alcohol, food, services plus administration… I’ll make it simple by making it a flat number. It totals to one hundred million Giga.”